The Rozmberk Society of the Czech Republic has several ongoing and worthwhile projects on preserving the shared Czech-US heritage and on regional development in rural areas. Their important work is adding to the historic and genealogical material available to researchers around the world. The Society’s founders have contributed many hours of work for these good causes. My favorite is the Peasant and Emigration Museum at Kojakovice which Rozmberk Soc’y created in an empty school building in the village, south of Trebon. The museum celebrated its 12th anniversary in May of 2013.

Drs. Dulfer’s essay on historic migration is worth reading. It explains how historic migration was used in a large EU school project to help explain today’s migration. He also explains project EMILE, which collects letters to and from 19th century emigrants. If you have such a letter, regardless of its ethnicity and language, please share it by scanning and e-mailing or mailing a photocopy to the Rozmberk Society or to me. I will forward the letter, if necessary after translating if it is in old German script and return a free translation to you. The EMILE website offers more detail on this project.
Ms. Cerna’s informative essay is on emigration and the database of “permission to leave” records that she is preparing that will become available online. More information on the Rozmberk Society can be found on their website. More information on genealogical research by its founders can be found at the Czech Ancestry website. Addresses:

For genealogical research, contact dulfer@rozmberk.org for orders and quotes.